Chapter 37
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: 9. Companion
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[Dad, look at this. I made it. What do you think?]
[Senior, how about a drink this time? Counsel me a bit.]
[What do you think? Does this suit me? Personally, I prefer this one...]
[Captain, we can retreat now if you want. We'll follow your judgment...]
I was someone's commander, someone's senior, someone's companion, and perhaps even someone's father.
It was familiar work, something I'd always done.
There were no particular problems.
The fact that I was merely a replacement for someone else was no issue at all.
Because even that had become familiar.
I led my mind like a tool, mechanically fulfilling my duties.
When I grew old and died, I switched bodies again.
Mechanically fulfilled my duties again.
Switched bodies again.
Fulfilled my duties again.
Switched bodies again.
Duties.
Bodies.
I saved people until my body rotted away and crumbled, until my convictions wore down to nothing.
I thought that if I kept at it, everyone would be happy.
I believed a peaceful world could truly exist.
[Why did we start this mess? Because all this shit is meaningless, that's why. Right? A warm back and a full belly aren't the end. People always want more.]
But contrary to what I thought, there was no end.
Peace inevitably bred corruption.
Corruption caused countless people suffering, leading back to war.
We ended the war and reclaimed peace.
Perfect peace didn't exist. It was due to structural contradictions.
It was on a day when I was growing increasingly disillusioned with it all.
[Why do you live like that? Humanity's progress, peace, all that crap. It's useless.]
I tried to counter as usual.
Humanity's progress was undoubtedly noble,
and humanity's peace was essential for more people to be happy.
But contrary to my expectations, I couldn't refute it.
[Good and evil. Don't you think it's stupid? Good is just a formality for the absolute majority to live together. Not some grand thing.]
Over hundreds of years, I'd slowly come to understand those words.
[Humans are ultimately just clever animals. No matter how advanced, they can't escape their animal limits. What's the value in that?]
That humans weren't special beings.
Just animals that grew lenient when full and savage when hungry.
[You know it too.]
Yes. I'd already known that fact.
At first, for the greater good.
After the greater good crumbled, for humanity.
After benevolence fell, for the Empire.
After disappointment in the Empire, for others.
My narrowing fence could no longer encompass others.
That was when I met her.
[Arbelia. That's my name.]
The cube vanished.
The Saintess who had seen my memories said nothing.
Ersela offered no moral criticism or rebuke.
The two simply stared at me silently.
"Why? Didn't this show up in your foresight?"
No answer came.
"..."
"..."
Emotions passed between us through the long silence.
Emotions flowing from her to me.
Approaching one-sidedly without backlash, it was hard to tell if it was hypocrisy or sincerity.
'No reaction, so it's no fun.'
Gauge reactions from her expression?
Impossible. Ersela's acting was on par with mine.
Time dragged on pointlessly. The Saintess broke the silence first.
"Then."
"...!"
"Why are you still alive?"
"...?"
Ersela continued this time.
"You could die anytime. If you wanted to, you could choose death at any moment. But you're alive."
The two asked me.
"Why are you still alive? What do you think now?"
I heard the same question again.
Why a nihilistic, cynical human like me was still alive.
Instead of answering, I looked at the Saintess, now entering old age.
"You've aged quite a bit."
"It's a natural phenomenon."
"Need a human sacrifice? I can do it for you if you want. Or should I make you ten years old again?"
"No need."
The aging was faster than expected.
Ersela showed no response whatsoever—what was she aiming for?
Completely different from her initial intense reaction.
At this rate, we had less than a minute left to talk.
'Wait, could it be...'
Only then did I understand Ersela's scheme.
"...You're going to claim you haven't lost your mind like this? Seriously?"
"Yes. Seriously. At first, I truly meant to kill you, but now I've seen the future."
The Saintess and Ersela's figures overlapped.
"I have no intention of interfering with what I saw. Unfortunately, that future is firmly fixed now."
First.
Ersela's relief was simple bluffing.
Her goal was to shake me.
In the end, the dimensional collapse was indeed a trap she had prepared.
"Ha... damn it. This is why I didn't want to play games with a seer."
Second.
Ersela no longer intended to kill me.
Precisely after I said I'd talk. She'd changed her mind from the moment she foresaw the future and smiled.
'I can roughly guess what future she saw.'
Otherwise, this attitude shift made no sense.
Damn bitch.
"For all your savior act... you actually didn't give a damn about the Empire or humans, did you?"
"Yes. The people I truly wanted to save died long ago. Old age. Natural causes."
So I have no lingering attachments.
Ersela smiled kindly as she said that.
She'd been in her twenties moments ago, yet the old woman's smile felt natural.
'What a bitch. She set up this whole stage, but her real goal wasn't killing me to bring peace.'
Third.
She didn't actually give a shit about peace.
'The original reason she tried to kill me wasn't peace at all.'
The people she wanted to save were already gone.
Thus, no attachments to this world.
A peaceful world?
Ersela couldn't care less about that, as her current attitude showed.
That's why she could so easily abandon her killing intent.
'Lost the psychological battle.'
Defeat.
"Fuck it, fine. I'll tell you. What am I thinking? I'm thinking of one scene."
I'm thinking of the ending I'd longed to see.
Anticipating the end of this goddamn long, boring movie.
"You must have seen it, right?"
The end of this movie.
The end of a C-grade flick not worth paying for.
"Ersela."
You, my former companion, must have seen it.
"...Yes. This is beyond my domain now. I'm satisfied with this much."
'She's smiling.'
Whether that smile was real no longer mattered.
Blood began leaking from Ersela's eyes and nose.
Drip!
Drip drip drip drip!
A terrifying red downpour started, and I calmly put up an umbrella.
"Not bad, you... to me..."
Ersela struggled to continue.
"Reso... nate..."
Her final words didn't reach me.
"... "
I silently watched Ersela.
I felt her corpse enter my ability's range.
I recalled a somewhat bittersweet joke.
"...Was there someone among the people you wanted to save who hadn't died yet?"
Someone worth welcoming with a stage this grand.
Which one it was, only she would know.
The barrier collapsed.
The dimension crumbled far more peacefully than I'd imagined, beyond my expectations.
Light began seeping in through the crumbling sub-dimension.
"―――Saintess!!"
I reached out to Ersela.
Regivis was rushing toward the Saintess.
'Contact with the Saintess suddenly cut off.'
He'd slain the fallen monster he was facing, but the Saintess's foresight had ended.
He could think the incident was resolved, but his instincts rang alarm bells.
No matter how he thought about it, it couldn't be that direction.
[You think so too, right? Another me.]
'Another me. Means there's a Helper.'
Regivis and the three Knight Commanders kicked off the ground and leaped up.
Through the crumbling sub-dimension, the interior scene was revealed.
"...!!"
At the center, with the fainted mages and candidates.
The Saintess stood alone. Before her, a man lay collapsed, bleeding.
"The situation is over."
Regivis checked the Saintess's condition.
The Saintess had no visible serious injuries.
The problem was elsewhere.
"Did you overuse foresight?"
The Saintess's lifespan was nearly gone.
As proof, she was breathing shallowly, as if she might die any moment.
"Human sacrifice immediately."
"No, I'm fine."
The Saintess turned and stopped Regivis.
"...!"
"For the first time in a while, I got to see off a companion."
"Companion...?"
The Saintess gave no explanation.
Instead, she staggered to her feet and stared at Regivis and the three Knight Commanders.
They were all alive but gravely wounded.
"Her duty is done. The rest is up to you."
Her words felt off somehow.
Third person instead of first. As if seeing herself as a separate entity—
"—You don't mean...!!"
The Saintess smiled.
"Yes. My victory."
Before Regivis could respond.
The Saintess's life ended.